Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Milo mastered the three back porch stairs about age 10 weeks. He mastered the two slightly higher front steps soon after.

One night I was surprised by his attempt to climb Mt. Everest! Without gear or a safety net!
Armed only with motivation and desire!

And bravery only a puppy who has no sense of danger can muster.

Eeeeek So tall! Where is my climbing gear??

Each night I wait up til after midnight to do the last potty run before going to bed upstairs.

Milo takes the "Mommy Elevator" up the stairs to his sleeping crate in the bedroom.

He's gotten so heavy already that I had to take a load of stuff up first then come down to lift him.

Last night he didn't wait at the bottom for me, but started scrambling up. No whining or crying, just followed Mama!
Yikes!
I dropped stuff off quick-like and headed down to see him stopped at step four because he was trying to do two stairs at once. I picked him up and we went to bed and that was it.
Til this morning...

I was once again awoken to the dulcet sounds of yipping and barking, his
morning song with Daddy. I came downstairs and was met with him coming
up to the landing! Like it was nothing at all! Done it forEVER he said!
No biggie!

Milo: wow! I didn't even knew I could do that! Go me! I was so excited I took a bite outta Mama's hand, and licked her and danced around... then noticed where I was... Ooooooooooooo

Then he looked around the landing and spied Dad through the railing spindles and what fun!

Milo: "I'm SO BIG he said! Yip! Look at me! King of the Hill! Tall as Daddy! Hey, what is all this stuff? This carpet smells different, I should dig around to see what could be buried in it!

Dig dig dig

Oh there's mama! I'll pet her a while so she feels loved! (dig dig) what's that? A book? And a pair of socks?

Mama! Hi Mama! Oh Mama if I'd only known how much fun this was! "

toys Cole never played with

Milo:Oh my poodles! Would ya look-a-here! At the top of the stair-mountain, a poodle could go shopping for a new toy! I think I'll have, er, this little chicken! Squeak! Yep, that will do, no need to wrap it up, I'll carry it out in my big teeth!LeeAnna: Anyway we spent a lifetime on the landing (then shopping at the top) until I needed a cup of coffee

Then Milo did a bit of schoolwork (learning my words and meanings) and surprised me by going all the way up the stairs after Daddy!

Milo: "Oh the freedom! The happiness! Look at me! Here's my sleeping crate and nylabones! Here's Daddy! So this is where he goes! Ha ha! Hahahahahahahahaha!

Huh? What's he doing picking me up... hey no manhandling the puppy! what in the world, oh elevator down to the first floor! (sports equipment, dog toys, ladies wear going down..,.)

Saturday, May 27, 2017

I am working with green scraps this month with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge
I limit myself to working with what is available in the scrap bins. The above hand pieced ( EPP) hexie star is my version and size of a free pattern, please look back through my hexie star posts to find the source.

I love the center fabric and have used it in several projects, and the shamrocks are from this year's St. Pat's day quilt.

The daisy fabric is also in my abstract and in person is a nice rich shade of green, very usable.
If I had any time this week to sew it was used on my abstract.

A friend of mine told me once she thought artists just knew what to do.

Bwaaaaahahahaha

Creating is a series of choices
I knew I wanted to border this with squares set in a background. Like little fancy garden squares in a rock bed. I chose this drab olive/tan organic fabric with variations. My thought is to quilt it with a light colored tan thread in little pebbles. I chose 2" raw squares because of the scale of the !!%.%" X 17" center, and I had a lot of that size in the scrap bin.

The outside border fabric is an emerald green with metallic gold shot thru, altho it looks darker here. It's just a possibility to return to some green after the squares are inset

See the golden bunny? It's paper, bought in Boulder on our pre-pup trip

Here it is with the poodle in too

I still am bothered by the center join and am not sure how I want to handle it. I may cut it somewhere again... stay tuned.

"Creativity is forging a path where there was none, then going down that path to see what's there!" LA Paylor 2017

It needed replacement for years and we finally found a neighbor who knew construction and he tore down the lovely old deck and replaced the flooring with trex. The railings were the really big ticket item and basically only on there because the law demands it. It's almost done after a week of work and rain.

I Like the flamingo towels I found on sale at Khols! I really am happy to dry my hands on them each time

Milo likes shoelaces

making going for a walk, a sport.

I Liked the dancing with the stars finale and winner! Yea Rashad! He was my fave from the start. I'll be watching the bachelorette next, and thank goodness the amazing race is still on.

That's it for me... what a tiring week.
Please visit these fine folk looking on the bright side. If you do a post I will link to you, let me know in comments!

Saturday, May 20, 2017

The challenge at RSC this month is to use your greens scraps.
My challenge is to sew at all, what with deck replacement noise and a "peeing-poodle-puppy" who wants to be with me in the studio.

(three peeing episodes within 24 hours in the studio. And yes he was let outside and peed there too. )
(we'll get thru this)

This week I planned to sew free cut curves into basic leaf curves and actually finish a small work.
Life had other plans. So here's what's been accomplished

... I sewed smaller pieces because that took less concentration. I still had to choose pattern and colors, angles and how to put the mosaic together.

strips seemed boring

In two sessions I sewed these sections and decided to put them in one
piece. See the divide there? I needed to decide how to curve piece it.

well, the join is centered, not great for artwork. Still I like the way some fabrics continued the lines across the join, I liked the leaf shapes coming and going, and I am happy anything got sewn. Scraps were used.

Next, you must decide where to trim it. My thought is to border with a thin strip of set in squares of green. Before that I needed an even edge. That's a choice too when you are doing improv work.

Next up is deciding orientation

What if I make the join a stem??? This is a little brown scrap but I'd make a longer one. Like that...
Or this way?

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Here we are again. I can hardly keep up now that they shortened the week to four days (just kidding, I just tell myself I'm not behind, the week is shorter)
I gotta squeeze a post in between bouts of puppy mania!

1. I Like I seeing peony bushes full and smelling sweet. Especially with Iris nest to them.

2. I Like that Milo lets me take the rocks out of his mouth when he eats that and grass. Do they resemble kibble?? Hopefully they don't taste like his kibble.

3 I like Dancing with the Stars, Amazing Race, and Survivor. All on TV at the moment and I enjoy them. I also enjoy Master Chef Junior
where little kids cook better than I ever will I love that they have purpose and passion at such a young age.

Lets see, when I was that age I was going to be a singer/dancer on Broadway. I saw a NYC show when we went to the worlds fair trip and I was 7 ish. Never lost my desire to perform! I lost my waistline, my youthful skin, and gained a bad back (likely from sashaying around on Candie's mules at discos) but still imagine myself a stage actress.

4. I like that the Deck Guy came this week and tore down the relic of a deck and is in process of replacing it with trek. It will take longer than we thought but it should be a strong surface.

5 I like birthday cards and gifts from loved ones! I got a couple Jackie Lawson cards too and love those action cards as well! Thank you to Nancy for these gifts, all flamingo themed.

Love them and you. That venus with a birthday cake is three-d!!!

Thank you to my dear husband who started me on my parental search again by getting this:

And.... I managed to go on a little spree of my own to buy a few selfie gifts. A maroon shirt from Anthropologie (70% off mother's day weekend!!) an ombre blue shirt from J.Jill also about 70% off! And the cool fresh sunglasses!

At least I feel cool wearing them! That's the important thing right?

6. I like sorting fabric when I can't focus on design.

7. I am continuing to like the Book Dying to wake up.
Here's a quote on Forgiveness I especially liked this week:
"...nothing lasts forever, and...bad moments from the past should not be left in the way of my future"
Amen

8. I like that on one of the shows I enjoy, Southern Charm, a young 20 something man ordered and got really excited to get a Brother Embroidery sewing machine.He's the one under the "R" in charm.
His girlfriend mocked him for it, and he stood up for his sewing passion and said she should be happy for his happiness.
That's right! I'd be happy to see a sewing machine show up at the door!!! He said he always liked sewing.

this bandana made by Monika at Tails from the Ranch
"thanks Aunt Monika... I love it. I am growing fast as I can and it fits! Mama read it to me, it says puppy love, and like any good bedtime story I fell asleep"

Which leads me to the VERY SCIENTIFIC TEST
2. place toys around the poodle perch...

Milo: "It took SUPER-POODLE reserve to watch the mama place all the fun toys around my home base...
And when she said, "Okay Milo! All done!" I jumped to action!! and chose first.... drum roll please.... the squirrel!

"I've been working on those ears for a while now. AND the annoying tag! I hate tags and take great pains to remove all tags I see from everything in my reach!"

(Mama: What??! Not the monkey? That monkey with all the legs is fun to shake around!)(Milo: "not this time. The monkey is asleep Mama, now the squirrel is teasing me!")

"See that mouse? It is my second favorite!

I spend a lot of time with that tail and the ears. I've been chewing and
chewing and Mama says one day I'll chew them off. I don't know about
that but they are sure fun to chew and the mama doesn't yelp like when I
start on her fingers so that's good"

yum yum yum!

" I really like all of these toys but when a puppy needs to really chew there is nothing as good as a nylabone. The Vet said to use soft ones so as not to break a tooth, but I heard Mama say if he hasn't broken a tooth on Daddy's foot, then they are pretty strong!, hahaha. (where is Daddy? )

I have a chew toy in both sleeping crates. One night Mama put on her sleeping skins I went in my sleeping crate in the bedroom and Mama started to read her book. I wasn't ready for sleep yet, as my pre-bedtime nap made me very not sleepy.

LeeAnna: I was reading, Daddy was snoring, Milo was quiet and then....
Squeak!

Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!

Squeaky-squeaky-squeaky-squeaky-squeaky-squeaky!

Milo found the little chicken in his bed and decided squeaky toys are fun!
Oh, good.

Well, that is the end of the VERY SCIENTIFIC TEST for now.

Milo: "All toys are my favorite! I've taste-tested each one and they all pass the test! "

" Whew! Working so hard is exhausting.
Better take a quick nap! I'll get to those drapes later, -gator! "
(you know I will)

Monday, May 15, 2017

This is another in my STAT series, all 12" square, all based on work of a well known artist, all focusing on texture, most with a poodle. I was inspired to make this one as a part of Alida's Art with Fabric challenge.

When you leave here, please visit the others as they show their work all week!

My piece is inspired by Modigliani. At the Nat'l Gallery of Art in Washington DC, I took a photo of his "woman with red hair"and that day I focused on cropping each painting, choosing an element I liked best. You are usually allowed to photograph paintings owned by the National Gallery of Art so it allows for learning as well as enjoyment.I took a close up of the gesture I liked, the face tilt and hand, and sought to interpret that in fabric.

Then I sized it according to my design vision, and printed it onto Printed Treasures pre-treated fabric. I used pinking shears to cut that printed image down to the size to suit my composition on a 12" piece. All of my STAT quilts are sized 12" square and on peltex. I chose hand dyed fabrics in blue/tan/ocher.

I drew a poodle, originally facing the other way (see below) onto a yellow index card, then used that as my pattern for the poodle.

It will be used in the future I'm sure

Deciding later to have him facing the woman, with the same head angle

I needed to copy the drawing (done on an index card of yellow) mirror image, and use that as my pattern.

It gave me the long necked silhouette, and a black pencil shaded him enough to give me the face ears and legs. Thread painting with 40 wt black cotton thread helped make it like a drawing in fabric. Drawing with thread. I loved the mood of that swirly black-on-gray fabric, it reminded me of 1920's wall paper. The gray repeated color in the original painting background, and the poodle. Modigliani created depth of color for his backgrounds but his compositions were very simple. I tried to capture the sense of that in my piece. He always has long necks, wistful expressions, and deep eyes.

He surrounded his subjects with nearly white shading around the edge of figures so I went in at the end with white pencil and colored around the poodle. It's always a challenge to abstract an idea, to convey a mood or sense of moment without being totally literal. It gives the viewer a chance to engage with the piece, filling in their blanks, making sense of the elements.

The pinked edge of the photo repeats the line of pinked edge of the poodle

After deciding fabrics,

...I then started creating the pieced checkerboard from the hand-dyes. I had another choice for them in mind at first but after the little half inch blocks were done I decided to make a "screen" as a lot of salons in Paris had painted screens in that era. The color of the screen repeats the red tone in her hair.

Look at the orange seed beads along the floor

All my STAT quilts focus on texture, and the texture here is the pinked free edges of the appliques, the un-quilted panel screen, the complete rug, lined and turned, barely sewn down, the slight fraying on the poodle like hair, visual texture repeat of swirls on wall paper and in the poodle.

Repetition of strong horizontal lines, vertical lines, curve of faces, colors placed to balance the piece were all decisions I had to make. Some fabrics are pieced, some appliqued, some pieced then appliqued.

Making something original takes thought. It requires a lot of decision making and in the middle of the process one doesn't know if they are making the best choice or not. That's just part of the process of making, not a lack of ability. Each of us is capable of making art of some kind, it takes courage and vision.

from pictureframes.com

I see it in my mind's eye first, then let a piece evolve as I make it. One decision leads to the next, the most important one is to keep going.

It's a challenge to balance details on small work with simplicity. I did the thread sketching on the poodle before putting on the backing, but there is even quilting throughout, just minimal quilting. The floor has uneven quilted planks. It has facing as I didn't want to introduce another element.

There comes a moment when embellishments are considered. I thought about these elements and liked them, they go with it, but like putting on one too many jewelry pieces they were distracting

In the end they seemed like too much so the only extras were the bugle beads.

I quite love all the STAT quilts and now must have nearly 18. There are other STAT posts if you're interested.

Thank you for visiting and remember to see what other artists have created at the link HERE
thank you to Alida for encouraging us and hosting the party!

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Artwork, images and photos, poodle or otherwise are my own, and are subject to copyright law. Please contact me to receive permission for use

Any other photos used here are copyright free, in the public domain, or the owner was contacted. Let's play nice now.

definition of self

I am the sum of my history along with all the possibilities of tomorrow, and define myself daily by decisions I make. Every day is an opportunity to create, seek joy and display strength. (c-2013) LA Paylor

quote

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO-HOO, what a ride!!"

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ON POODLES

When asked “Why a Poodle?” the late Anne Rogers Clark (the first woman to win Best inShow at Westminster) often replied: “They are Labradors with college educations. Aftera day of retrieving, your Lab wants to curl up in front of the fireplace and take a welldeserved nap. A Poodle wants to be fourth at the bridge table and tell naughty stories!”

Katharine Hepburn

"If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun." (Katharine Hepburn)

Learning

learn from the ones who can teach, teach the ones who can learnLA Paylor